Minister accused of covering up Railtrack closure plans

Transport Secretary Stephen Byers was facing fresh claims that he failed to come clean over his plans to wind up Railtrack.

A leaked document obtained by the Sunday Times today suggested that legal papers to close down the company were drawn up more than a week before the announcement was made.

The Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR) dismissed the disclosure, saying that Mr Byers had always made clear that there were contingency plans to put the company into administration.

However shadow transport secretary Theresa May said the document showed that the Government had been poised to act much earlier than it had previously let on.

She said that an explanation was now owed to shareholders who were allowed to carry on trading in the company's stock, even though ministers knew it was about to be wound up.

The document at the centre of the statutory instrument to put the company into administration, dated October 6 to come into effect the following day, October 7.

However the at the top of the document there is an earlier date - September 28 - indicating that a copy was faxed on that day, possibly to another Government department.

Mr Byers had previously said that he had taken the decision to wind up the company on October 5. However Mrs May said that the existence of this document at least a week before suggested that he knew before then.

"This clearly shows that the Government was on the verge of putting Railtrack into administration much earlier than Stephen Byers claimed," she said.

"The Government owes it to shareholders, particularly employees who have their savings invested in the company, to come clean over the events leading up to the collapse of Railtrack."

However the DTLR said that Mr Byers had made clear in his Commons statement that they had begun contingency planning as early as August 23, when the department contacted accountants Ernst and Young.

This document was part of that process and had been drawn up the week before in case it was needed, a DTLR spokesman said.

"There is no secret about the department having contingency plans in place. This is part of our contingency plans," the spokesman said.